Sea Org

Tom Cruise and David Miscavige Have Brunch & L. Ron Hubbard Was Supposed to “Make Himself Visible” by 1999

The Church of Scientology sent this now widely-circulated photo of Tom Cruise and David Miscavige to the Los Angeles Times for its feature article on Scientology. Published December 5, 2004 both the photo and the Times caption are unintentionally hilarious:

A STAR AND HIS LEADER: Tom Cruise and David Miscavige after a brunch at Scientology’s Celebrity Centre in Hollywood about a year ago.

Tom Cruise and David Miscavige send mixed signals in the photo. They want to present a sinister image of themselves as planetary-clearing, Psych-busting, bad-ass, leather-wearing Scientologists on their matching Ducati’s. However, bad-ass bikers don’t do brunch. The photo looks like a sultry urban bromance more than anything else.

In the L.A. Times article of 2004 we learn several interesting facts:

1. David Miscavige had molds made of his feet so that he could order custom made shoes:

2. Scientology acquired the old Gilman Hot Springs resort for $2.78 million in 1978. The resort became the home to Scientology’s Gold Base where the infamous “musical chairs” event occurred. This event was first reported on by Marc Headley at xenu.net. This was when Marc was writing under the screen name Blownforgood. Marc’s book Blown For Good: Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology is a true classic.

3. The Church used the names “Scottish Highland Quietude Society” and “Western States Scientific Assn.” to purchase the Gilman Hot Springs resort. Scientology did not want anyone to know who the real buyer was. This was the same dishonest method whereby Scientology acquired its first properties in Clearwater.

4. Scientology spent “at least $45 million” on improvements Gold Base in the period 1978-2004. The LA Times article does not mention Scientology’s sniper nest and lookout station at Gold Base that was named the Eagle’s Nest. Details are in my 2014 podcast with Jackson Morehead, the former Security Chief at the Base. In this podcast Jackson covers the big fire that was caused by toilet paper being set afire, the razor wire fences, and the sniper rifles at the Base:

5. Scientology was planning on a television station as early as 2004. Scientology TV was launched March 12, 2018 — a glacial fourteen years later. The “speed of particle flow” was slow on this project.

6. Scientology spent $9.4 million to build a mansion on its Gold Base for the deceased L. Ron Hubbard. The article informs us that Ron’s mansion is named Bonnie View and has a lap pool and a movie theater. Looks like Ron wants to do laps in his pool and watch movies when he returns from Target 2.

7. David Miscavige told Sea Org members that the Bonnie View mansion needed to built quickly as L. Ron Hubbard was returning and would make himself visible within thirteen years of his 1986 death. Former Sea Org member Karen Schless Pressley, author of Escaping Scientology: An Insider’s True Story, was quoted in the LA Times 2004 on Hubbard’s mansion and David Miscavige’s claim that Hubbard would soon appear:

A teenage L. Ron Hubbard never made himself visible by 1999 as promised by Scientology leader David Miscavige.

This is hardly surprising as David Miscavige’s prophetic track record has been abysmal:

* The Ideal Orgs have not boomed Scientology or even moved the needle

* Scientology TV was dead on arrival. Scientology’s “uncorrupted communication line to the billions” is an infomercial of incredible boredom and repetition.

* The new Flag Building in Clearwater did not boom Scientology.

* Scientology did not destroy Psychiatry by the year 2000 as Miscavige predicted

Finally, Miscavige got these predictions incredibly wrong when he made them in 1992 during the 25th Anniversary of the Sea Org:

Truth Revealed: The Church of Scientology Finally Explains How It Has Millions of Members

The Church of Scientology International (CSI) is the “Mother Church” of Scientology. As the official Mother Church, CSI makes this bold statement on one of its official websites:

The truth is that there are millions of individuals who participate in Scientology services and apply it to their lives.

In the very next sentence, CSI identifies the source for its claim that millions of individuals participate in Scientology:

This is according to the individual Churches that maintain the names of their parishioners and a record of their progress up the Scientology Bridge.

While all parishioners’ records are securely maintained at their local Church, the names and addresses of members of all Churches and Missions are provided to Church of Scientology International (CSI), which maintains the mailing list for Church magazines disseminated to all Scientologists. Our numbers come from this international list.

Parishioners’ records are not securely maintained and can be, in fact, culled by OSA to find dirt on Scientologists. Parishioners’ records can also be culled to help regges find “buttons” to raise more money. Laura Dieckman’s legal case has shown us that over 100 people have access to pc folders. And yet CSI claims that Parishioners’ records are securely maintained. Given that this statement is false, we must also treat with scrutiny CSI’s claim “that there are millions of individuals who participate in Scientology services and apply it to their lives.”

There are five glaringly obvious problems with CSI’s claim that millions of people are participating in Scientology:

1. Who are the people at the local Scientology churches sending the names of their members to CSI? The answer is that local staff members are sending the lists of names to CSI. This is a problem because CSI has a policy in which it declares that it does not stand behind any statements or claims made by staff members:

CSI’s claim that “there are millions of individuals who participate in Scientology services and apply it to their lives” is made by Scientology staff members and therefore CSI, per its own policy, takes no responsibility for this claim or any claims made by staff members. Absent verification by an independent third party audit, the staff members reporting millions of members must be assumed to be engaged in false reporting. I say this because there is no empirical evidence whatsoever that Scientology has millions of members — and we certainly can’t believe Scientology’s staff members given the fact that CSI itself refuses to stand behind statements made by its own staff members.

2. CSI designated the IAS as the official membership organization of Scientology. Therefore, only the IAS can make a true and accurate statement of membership numbers. However, the IAS is not a part of the Church of Scientology:

Applications to join the IAS are sent to the IAS. The Church of Scientology International told the IRS that it doesn’t even get a copy of IAS applications:

4. The Church of Scientology International told the IRS that the Church does not have access to IAS records:

The information requested regarding IAS receipts and expenditure is voluminous and not readily available to CSI or any other Scientology-related organization.

5. How can CSI possibly know how many Scientologists there are if it doesn’t know how many people have applied to the IAS for membership? The answer is that CSI has to rely on statements made by staff members. However, as we said, CSI doesn’t stand behind statements made by staff members.This is all more Scientology nonsense. And yet there it is on Scientology’s website:

Certifiable Wingnut David Miscavige Claims Infinity Has a Front Porch & That He Travels Faster than Light

Lost in a space opera world of Marcabs, Fifth Force invaders, implant stations on Mars, and 75,000,000 year old body thetans, Scientology’s brutal dictator David Miscavige routinely wears a fake Navy uniform with fake medals. He pretends to be the Captain of a legally non-existent “Sea Org.” Miscavige also dresses his dog in a navy uniform and orders his underlings to salute the dog.

Unhinged lunatic and certifiable wingnut David Miscavige claimed in a bizzare speech that Infinity has a front porch. In this same speech, Miscavige claimed that 2015 surpassed any year since the “first tick of time.” In saying this, Miscavige essentially claimed to have existed since the very beginning of time, for only one who has existed since the beginning of time could compare 2015 to the first tick of time:

David Miscavige did not disclose the whereabouts of his “front porch of infinity” nor did he explain the physics whereby time is compressed. Nevertheless, he assured Scientologists that they had arrived at the front porch of infinity due to working at “warp speed” i.e. faster than the speed of light.

David Miscavige’s mental state is such that he actually believes he travels at superluminal speeds and can compress time.

While it is impossible to travel faster than C — the speed of light — Miscavige asserted his delusional claim that he and all other Scientologists can work at speeds faster than the speed of light and that this somehow compresses time.

While he is obviously lost in a world of mental illness in which Scientologists can work and travel at faster than light speeds, “Captain Miscavige” is also reported to be “abnormally normal” and is said to have a fondness for taco trucks; this according to his fake navy subordinate Mollie Hoertling of Bridge Publications:

Left unexplained by Ms. Hoertling is how she and David Miscavige can eat tacos, grilled cheese sandwiches, or cheeseburgers while working at faster than light speeds. Also left unexplained is where David Miscavige’s missing wife Shelly is located or her state of health. At the recent event in Birmingham, England David Miscavige was not wearing a wedding ring.

David Miscavige is deranged and this is why he makes fantastical claims such as superluminal travel and infinity having a front porch. Miscavige also engaged in an orgy of self-love and self-praise in this bizarre speech:

And of course at the height “Captain” David Miscavige’s megalomaniac lunacy we saw Tom Cruise groveling before Miscavige. Tom Cruise embarrassed himself here and David Miscavige enjoyed it immensely:

February 2017: Notes and Observations on Scientology

February 2017: Here are some notes and observations on how I watch and look at Scientology:

1. So many things constellate around The Underground Bunker that this place is mandatory daily reading. Tony Ortega understands context, story, and significance in a way that utterly eludes Scientology, David Miscavige, Freedom Rag, and the no-show-no-stats SMP.

2. Mike Rinder’s blog is the Tiffany’s of documenting Scientology’s ongoing failures, deceits, and decline. Mike provides an outstanding daily journal of real-time Scientology decline. Mike’s valuable insights into Scientology as an organization are possible due to his decades of managing the Office of Special Affairs on a daily basis. Mike understands Scientology and David Miscavige at a profound level. That Mike’s jovial and robust sense of humor is mated to his ferocious intellect makes reading his analysis of the situation that much more enjoyable.

3. Disconnection and Fair Game are non-negotiable and must go. To the degree that Scientology practices and enforces Disconnection and Fair Game, Scientology’s self-destruction will persist. No one out here in the real world will stand for Scientology’s breaking up of families and its programs of character assassination.

4. Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath was a devastating expose of the Church of Scientology and its brutality. If it is not already in the works, season two will spontaneously appear as an act of Creation Ex Nihilo; the metaphysics of television dictate that this must happen.

4. Twitter and Facebook are extremely important to watch. The sum of message traffic on these platforms provides invaluable existential information about Scientology and Culture. Social media shows Scientology’s inherent inability to interact with Culture. This ineptitude is traceable to L. Ron Hubbard who called for Scientology to use blatantly phony and dishonest PR in the place of apologetics or other forms of meaningful interaction with Culture.

5. Scientology’s hate websites are very important to watch. These incriminating sites constitute damning and irrefutable forensic evidence which shows that Scientology’s programs of Fair Game have an unlimited budget of tax-free dollars. These websites also offer a penetrating insight into the psyche of Miscavige and OSA in a way that betrays both of them. Like a Cold War era Sovietologist would note, a good analyst must study the propaganda operations and party line rhetoric of the other side. IMO, our side needs more analysts who are willing to monitor, document, analyze, and write about Scientology’s websites.

6. Scientology’s cash position, cash surplus, and real estate acquisitions are almost completely meaningless as significant metrics. Any organization with a cash surplus can buy and amass a real estate portfolio. In most cases, Scientology’s real estate acquisitions of decrepit old buildings in need of millions of dollars in renovations are designed to stall and buy time for David Miscavige. From my perspective, Miscavige is obviously using these empty buildings to buy time and create some semblance of hope for the future of Scientology. However, no one is fooled. Example: The San Fernando Valley Ideal Org is a complete waste of time and money. There is no excuse for Miscavige to leave that eyesore unfinished given the IAS cash pile. The PR damage done to Scientology by leaving buildings empty for years or decades, particularly when there is plenty of money available to open these buildings within 12-18 months, is inexcusable. Conversely, Scientology will cherry pick top properties. This was the case with SMP here in Hollywood or Larry Hagman’s place in Ojai. But then the Cult will not actually do anything with these premier properties except use them for PR.

7. David Miscavige needs to reverse the massive and long-term statcrash in Scientology and does not know how to do it because he refuses to understand the nature and essence of the problems facing Scientology. Understanding the real problems would require critical self-reflection on his part wherein he would conclude that he must resign and step aside. He has zero capabilities in this regard and believes himself to be indispensable to Scientology. Compounding this is the long term structural damage to Scientology wrought by Miscavige’s execution of Hubbard’s bad policies and Miscavige’s own failed programs in the period 2001 to the present day is irreversible. Miscavige massively overreached with his frenzied money grab in the Basics, selling IAS statuses, and the failed Ideal Org strategy. GAT I and GAT II were, and are, failures in ways Miscavige does not understand.

8. Scientology’s contradictory policies of greed-driven inhumanity place it at war with itself and all the parts of its own existence. To use an analogy, Scientology is like a raging alcoholic with serious self-created problems who denies they are an alcoholic and blames others for their problems. Everyone else can see the problems except Scientology. The Church of Scientology is an embarrassment to itself and does not see it.

9. The real numbers a good leaker could give are these:
A. Attendance at events: publics and SO.
B. The number of SO members over the past ten years.
C. The total number of IAS members in good standing with the Church.
D. Total membership losses of publics and SO over the past ten years.
E. Number of SO senior execs paid off to sign nondisclosure agreements in the past ten years.

10. One of the real things to watch is the covert consolidation of Scientology Orgs. Miscavige can call it whatever he wants, but consolidation is contraction and Scientology is contracting inwards upon itself with great force. The acquisition of real estate is a red herring. Purchasing buildings is meaningless in the face of Scientology’s uncontrollable and accelerating membership losses. The way out is through the nearest door.

11. The petard upon which Scientology is hanging itself is Disconnection and Fair Game.

Scientology Media Productions: Panhandling on the Streets of Hollywood!

757

Imagine telling the entire world you are purchasing an ultra-luxury state-of-the-art $100,000,000 private 757 business jet. As the interior of your jet is designed and built with the most opulent of appointments, you boast to the entire world and show off the spacious interior:

24bb09d700000578-0-image-a-5_1421352928450

The big day arrives as your magnificent $100,000,000 private jet is rolled out of the hangar to great applause and fanfare. However, there is only one problem: You have no money for jet fuel, pilots and crew, ramp fees, landing fees, maintenance, or any other operating costs. In other words, you are so broke that you can’t actually fly your new plane unless people donate money to you for operating expenses. And so your shiny new jet remains parked on the tarmac like a giant useless paperweight.

This, apparently, is exactly what has happened with the recently opened Scientology Media Productions (SMP) facility in Hollywood. As reported by Mike Rinder, the Church of Scientology is now claiming that it needs to raise money in order to fund productions at its $100,000,000 studio. SMP is all set to fly but, alas, has no gas money. Hence, the “Panhandling on the Streets of Hollywood” begging letter from SMP posted by Mike Rinder:

screenshot-1072

Of course, this is all nonsense and is simply more Scientology greed at work. Scientology has plenty of money to fund SMP operating expenses. The IAS could write a big fat check from its billion dollar plus cash reserves and be done with it. After all, the IAS slush fund exists, it is claimed, to advance the aims and purposes of the Scientology religion, right? Seriously, though, Scientology will never fund anything when it can take in “new money” from credulous status-happy Scientologists and hang onto its “old money.”

As Mike Rinder has pointed out many times, the Church of Scientology already has a giant state of the art television, film, and music production facility at its Gold Base in San Jacinto, California that does not operate at anywhere near capacity. It’s not like Scientology actually needs a second underutilized production facility.

Variation on a Scam: The SMP fundraising scam reminds me of the old Super Power building scam. David Miscavige gave endless excuses for years as to why he couldn’t open the Super Power Building. One of Miscavige’s lamest excuses came in 2010 when he said he needed “1,000 more” Scientologists to join the Sea Org before he could open the Super Power building — and this is really no different than Miscavige saying Scientology Media Productions needs operating funds before it can produce content:

Super.Power.1000

David Miscavige’s next excuse was that he needed the “Final 300” Sea Org members before he could open Super Power:

SP.300

Having failed to get all of the “Final 300” Sea Org members, David Miscavige was down to needing 110 new Sea Org members:

SP.110

There are always excuses in Scientology for why the planet cannot cleared, buildings cannot be opened, or content cannot be produced in a new $100,000,000 studio. The usual excuses are that more more money has to be raised; more Sea Org members are needed; there has to 10,000 on Solo NOTs; all Orgs must be St. Hill size; all Orgs must be Ideal, etc. It really doesn’t matter so long as an excuse is provided.

I don’t know if Flag ever recruited the 1,000 Sea Org members. What I do know is that the Super Power building remained the most profitable empty building in the world from 1998 until it opened on November 17, 2013. As Ashley Collman of the Daily Mail wrote at the time:

The group broke ground on the Mediterranean Revival-style building in 1998, but stopped work after finishing the shell.

For three years, the group ceased construction on the project until the city started imposing $250-a-day fines for code violations.

Scientology defectors have explained that the building’s slow construction is due to church leader’s who have allegedly used the project as a fundraising cash cow.

An analysis by the Tampa Bay Times discovered that the church had raised $145million for the building, much higher than the $100million it was estimated to cost.

Who knows? David Miscavige and Scientology may need to postpone production at Scientology Media Productions indefinitely until more money is raised, more Sea Org members are recruited, or until the Commodore returns from Target 2.

To whimsically add to our excursion through one of Scientology’s Scams of the Past, former Sea Org member Aaron Saxton made a very humorous and prescient comment on ESMB during the 2010 “1,000 Sea Org are needed for Super Power!” campaign:

It just occured to me that this statement by DM [that 1,000 Sea Org members are needed for Super Power] will be sending the jitters through the SO, especially within Los Angeles.

They know they will not have a hope in hell of getting this many recruits.

So what they will do is start doing “utilization” surveys on SO members around the world. They will give CMO quotas in each continent to find people “under utilized” and send them to Flag.

Following this they will empty out their RPF’s to get crew to the FSO to get the numbers up.

A similar incident happened in 1995 when DM went nutty at the FSO and we ended up sending over 150 missionaires to FLB.

None of them bar a very select few, ever made it back. They all ended up getting posted down there.

I can see DM doing a similar thing.

It is apparent that DM is going to keep command teams in the continental liaison offices to run things directly as I think DM can see the end of IMO/HGB middle management on the horizon.

Why run things on a via when he thinks he is so great at running it directly?

1000 recruits…LOL, I would pay a dollar to see that!

Hey, should I send in my billion year contract? Perhaps they will re-hire me? I soooo want to be part of the biggest failure in Scn history. Please please please!

In related news, Scientology fundraising in now under way for the L. Ron Hubbard Hall and park in Clearwater, Florida. As gushing Scientology coverage of the recent LRH birthday celebration enthused:

There was also the momentous announcement of the future L. Ron Hubbard Hall in Clearwater, a magnificent auditorium designed to seat thousands with convention and banquet conversion capability, complemented by a beautifully-appointed L. Ron Hubbard Park.

Scientology likes to brag about its accomplishments. I have to give Scientology credit for this: It has amassed the world’s largest irrelevant and non-performing real estate portfolio ever and continues to do. We have the IRS to thank for giving this deviant and real-estate-obsessed group its wholly unmerited tax exemption.

Scientology Inc: L. Ron Hubbard Never Appointed David Miscavige as his Successor (Mark Fisher)

In this podcast Mark Fisher — who was David Miscavige’s former assistant for many years at the Corporate Liaison Office and later RTC — discusses how L. Ron Hubbard never appointed David Miscavige as his Successor. Instead, Mark describes how David Miscavige, who then worked as an employee of the privately-owned for-profit company Author Services Inc., used ASI to stage a palace coup to take over RTC, and thus the Church, after the death of L. Ron Hubbard.

Mark Fisher also discusses how he took personal possession of L. Ron Hubbard’s auditing folders and the OTVIII – OTX materials after Hubbard’s death, this at the direct order of David Miscavige.

In my previous article Scientology claims L. Ron Hubbard chose David Miscavige to succeed him, proving he didn’t, David Miscavige used Scientology attorney Eric Lieberman to insist that he, David Miscavige, had rightfully inherited the mantle of L. Ron Hubbard. Lieberman insisted the Church has documents from L. Ron Hubbard supporting this claim. However, neither Lieberman nor the Church has ever publicly produced these alleged documents. It stands to reason that if such documents existed then David Miscavige would certainly have produced and publicly circulated these documents immediately upon the death of L. Ron Hubbard in January 1986. This never happened. Therefore, Lieberman’s claim must remain unsubstantiated until such a time as the purported documents are publicly posted online and made available for one and all to examine.

This matter also the question: Why, after 30 years at the top of Scientology, does David Miscavige suddenly feel the need to assert that he is the legitimate successor of L. Ron Hubbard? The answer may lie in the fact that many current and former Scientologists view Miscavige’s succession to power as having been the result of an illegitimate palace coup after L. Ron Hubbard died on January 26, 1966 without having appointed a successor.

In the David Miscavige.Affadavit.17 Feb 1994 David Miscavige stated that L. Ron Hubbard went completely out of touch with any and all Church entities from May of 1984 until he passed away in January of 1986.

This means that from May 1984 forward, Hubbard had absolutely no contact with David Miscavige or anyone else in the Church. And from 1982-1987 David Miscavige was COB Author Services Inc., a for-profit California corporation that was not a part of the Church of Scientology International. During this time period, however, David Miscavige arguably pierced the corporate veils between ASI, CST. RTC, and CSI at one crucial event when “Commander” David Miscavige showed up in the uniform of a Sea Org member to help conduct the Mission Holder Massacre of October 1982. As an employee of a privately-owned corporation, Miscavige had no authority to act within CST, RTC, or CSI. Nevertheless, Miscavige announced to the Mission Holders:

“Earlier this evening both Kingsley Wimbush and Dean Stokes were here. They have both now been declared and we are pursuing criminal charges against them. They have been delivering their own squirrel tech while calling it Scientology. Kingsley Wimbush’s ‘dinging process’ is complete squirrel. You won’t find it in any tech, yet he has been calling it Scientology. That’s a violation of trademark laws and he now faces some serious charges for this crime. This sort of activity is NOT going to go on any more.”

Question: By what right or authority did Commodore David Miscavige declare Kingsley Wimbush and Dean Stokes? As an ASI employee, Miscavige had absolutely no standing in CSI; he had no ecclesiastical or corporate authority to declare SP’s. And yet in the 1982 photo below we see David Miscavige declaring Mission Holder Dean Stokes of Dallas an SP:
DM.Dean.Stokes

Given David Miscavige’s lack of corporate and ecclesiastical standing in the Church, we must therefore assume David Miscavige declared Dean Stokes based upon Miscavige’s standing as a then Commander – and later Captain — in the Sea Org. However, this belies what CSI Legal Director Alan Cartwright stated in when he was deposed by Ray Jeffrey in Rathbun v. Miscavige:

Q. (By Mr. Jeffrey) Okay. Is David Miscavige captain of the Sea Organization?
A. No.

Q. What — does he have a rank within the Sea Organization?
A. He has a rank, just like I have a rank.

Q. And what is his rank?
A. From what I understand, he has a rank of captain.

Q. Okay. Is that an insulting term?
A. I don’t know about being insulting, it’s just an incorrect term.

Q. According to you?
A. Insulting?

Q. Yeah, that it’s — no, you said it’s incorrect. It’s incorrect according to you.
A. What I said to you was I don’t know him as Captain David Miscavige. I’ve never heard that being used.

Q. Have you ever seen him in his captain’s uniform?
A. I’ve seen him in his Sea Org uniform.

Q. And is it a captain’s uniform with captain’s rank?
A. You know, I’m not sure.

Q. Do you have a uniform?
A. Yes.

Q. And so, what you’re saying is that everyone within this group called the Sea Organization has a rank, but the ranks are meaningless?
A. Ranks — these — you have to understand what the Sea Org is. It’s a religious order, and these are — these are honorary positions that are given to someone because of longevity and what they’ve done for the religion. That’s all it is.

Q. Is there any chain of authority from rank to rank? Does a captain have authority in connection with an ensign?
A. No.

Q. There’s no authority that derives from that?

A. None whatsoever. Just to give you an example, I’m an ensign, Linda Hamel is a midshipman, I have a senior rank to her.

Q. And both of those ranks are beneath captain?

A. In the levels of ranks, yes.

Q. But, you are saying that the ranks are meaningless in terms of authority?
A. Totally.

According to CSI Legal Director Alan Cartwright, Sea Org ranks are meaningless in Scientology. Hence, corporate ranks mean everything. So to repeat, how did David Miscavige, an employee of a for-profit privately owned corporation called Author Services Inc., have any corporate or ecclesiastical standing within CSI standing to declare Dean Stokes, Kingsley Wimbush, or anyone else an SP in 1982 at the Mission Holders Conference? The answer is that he didn’t.

David Miscavige’s claim that his Sea Org rank means nothing does not withstand scrutiny when we consider the actions of “Sea Org Commander David Miscavige” at the 1982 Mission Holders Conference. The for-profit ASI had no authority to declare anyone an SP. Miscavige could have only acted from his role and authority within the Sea Org when he declared people. This proves that the Sea Org actually runs the Church of Scientology; the “farrago of cavils” from Alan Cartwright notwithstanding.

Likewise, David Miscavige’s claim to be the legitimate successor to L. Ron Hubbard does not withstand scrutiny when we consider the complete absence of any succession document, or documents, written by L. Ron Hubbard. Rather, based upon the available evidence, we must conclude that David Miscavige came to power in a palace coup he staged to take over RTC after the death of L. Ron Hubbard.

Scientlology Money Project Chart # 11

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The structure of Scientology Inc. is rife with self-serving conflicts of interest by David Miscavige and his enablers both in OSA and private practice.

Scientologists must confront this fact: Their “Church” has gone criminal and is in an out exchange condition. This is a rip off per Mr. Hubbard:

“First consider a group which takes in money but does not deliver anything in exchange. This is called rip-off. It is the ‘exchange’ condition of robbers, tax men, governments and other criminal elements.” – L. Ron Hubbard, HCO PL 10 Sep 82 – Exchange, Org Income and Staff Pay.

Scientologists are encouraged to do their own Doubt Formula to find out what is true for them. The data found here on the Scientology Money Project is from publicly-available IRS records, court records, and other public documents. I found virtually everything on this blog by using Google. Knowledge is power.

2016 will bring increasing challenges to Scientology Inc. as ever-increasing exposure is brought to bear on this criminal organization masquerading as a religion. Particular scrutiny will be on Kingpin David Miscavige and his enablers.

How Scientology changes its story to fit what it’s trying to get away with

—David Miscavige, captain of a legal fiction—

(Note: This article first appeared on Tony Ortega’s Underground Bunker and is republished here for archival reasons.)

Former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder recently reported that church lawyer Gary Soter had sent a threat letter to former Scientology executive Dan Koon.

The church had learned that Koon helped Ron Miscavige Sr., the father of Scientology leader David Miscavige, write his memoir, which is due to come out in 2016. In his letter, Soter informed Koon that by merely helping Ron write his book, he was in violation of nondisclosure agreements and bonds he had signed as a Scientology officer. Those documents Koon had signed carried heavy penalties for violating their terms, Soter claimed.

On March 12, 1980 you agreed to pay $5,000,000 in liquidated damages for “breach of security of the CMO INT or any units working under CMO INT. This would include anything heard with regards to work…”

Sea Org members make about $40 per week — when they’re paid at all — but Scientology expects its indentured servants to pay a $5,000,000 penalty for breaking the Sea Org’s rules. What really stood out, however, was something else Soter included in his letter. Can you spot it?

On May 12, 2000 you signed a “Declaration of Religious Commitment and Membership in the Sea Organization. Paragraph 8 of that Agreement states: “I agree to maintain the confidentiality of all communications…all documents, all files, all mailing lists and all other material not commonly offered to the public for sale or use…which may come into my knowledge or possession in the course of my services as a member of the Sea Organization…”

You might remember that we’ve pointed out before how David Miscavige’s attorney, Lamont Jefferson, has said in official court documents that the Sea Org has no legal standing and has no members. Here’s what Jefferson wrote in a filing in Monique Rathbun’s lawsuit against Miscavige…

Plaintiff asserts that Mr. Miscavige exercised control because he leads the Sea Organization, a religious order within Scientology. But the ‘Sea Org’ is not a corporate entity; it has no physical or legal existence. It is not incorporated or established pursuant to legal formalities. It has no constitution, charter or bylaws, and no formal or informal ecclesiastical, corporate, or other management structure. It has no directors, officers, managing agents, or other executives; no employees, staff members, or volunteers; no income; no disbursements, no bank accounts or other assets; no liabilities; no stationery; no office, home, address, or telephone number. It does not create or maintain any financial, personnel, or other records. It can neither give nor receive orders because it has no one to either give or receive them or to carry them out. It cannot sue or be sued.

What Jefferson told a Texas court aligns with what the Church told the IRS to get its tax exempt status in 1993:

Although there is no such “organization” as the Sea Organization, the term Sea Org has a colloquial usage which implies that there is. There are general recruitment posters and literature for “The Sea Org” which implies that people will be employed by the Sea Org when in reality they will join, making the billion year commitment, at some church that is staffed by Sea Org members and become employees of that church corporation.

So, while Scientology tells courts and governments that its Sea Org has no legal reality and no members, it tells Sea Org members like Dan Koon something very different.

But then again, Scientology isn’t even consistent in what it says in the courtroom. Here’s what another Scientology attorney, Bert Deixler, said in a court briefing in Laura DeCrescenzo’s forced-abortion lawsuit against the church…

“It is exclusively from the Sea Org that the senior leadership of Scientology is drawn.”

The Sea Org has no members. But Deixler told a California court that the senior leadership of Scientology is drawn “exclusively” from the Sea Org – a group that Mr. Jefferson told a Texas court can have no directors, officers, managing agents, executives, employees, staff members, or volunteers.

So, let’s review the scorecard…

— In order to keep David Miscavige out of a deposition in a Texas lawsuit, Scientology claims that the Sea Org does not exist and has no members. Sea Org members derive authority only from their posts in the Church of Scientology hierarchy.

— In order to threaten Dan Koon, Gary Soter asserts that the Sea Org and its contracts exist, that they are legally binding; and that they can serve as the basis of a lawsuit to collect $5,000,000 in liquidated damages.

— In order to claim First Amendment protection for its abusive treatment of employees, Bert Deixler said in Laura DeCrescenzo’s lawsuit that all of Scientology’s senior executives are drawn from its monastic order the Sea Org.

Deixler was unsparing on this point in defending the Sea Org’s policies, which include outrageous treatment of children, as Laura DeCrescenzo was. Deixler cited Higgins v. Maher (1989), a case which states that anyone who enters into employment as religious clergy forfeits the protection of the civil authorities:

The courts of this State have recognized that the ministerial exception bars judicial interference with discipline or administration by churches of their clergy…”In our society, jealous as it is of separation of church and state, one who enters the clergy forfeits the protection of the civil authorities in terms of job rights.”

As I wrote in a previous column, this “ministerial exception” is why Sea Org workers do not have to be paid minimum wage or overtime; why they can be locked up and brutalized in the Rehabilitation Project Force; and why they receive no pension after decades of service. Scientology has been able to subject its workforce to endless hours, sleep deprivation, unhealthful food and psychological terrorizing, and American courts have been reluctant to do anything about it.

The Church sees Sea Org members as “coins” that can be traded among Orgs and then kicked to the curb when they weaken from age or infirmity. The Sea Org euphemism for this cruelty is called “Fitness Boarding.” Old and sick Sea Org members are fitness boarded, given $500, and then shown the door.

Is what I am describing inaccurate? Is my language too strong? Not according to the words of Bert Deixler and the Church of Scientology in their filings opposing Laura DeCrescenzo’s lawsuit:

Even if an ecclesiastical decision appears harsh, humiliating, unfair, or irrational from a secular viewpoint, civil courts have no role to play…

The Church of Scientology’s justification for its humiliating and sadistic treatment of Sea Org workers is the First Amendment. However, when Captain David Miscavige of the Sea Org is at risk of being deposed, the Sea Org does not exist.

The Church of Scientology should not be able to have it both ways: A legally nonexistent entity cannot have First Amendment protections.

The late Earle Cooley, an attorney for the Church of Scientology, once caught someone the Church was suing in a contradiction during a deposition. Cooley calmly asked, “So which story are you sticking with?”

Thus, we turn Mr. Cooley’s question to David Miscavige and the Church of Scientology: Does the Sea Org exist or does it not exist?

Which story are you sticking with, Mr. Miscavige?

The Nine Key Principles of Scientology

Scientology is a standalone and transportable system of policy and operations that can be set up anywhere. At is core, Scientology s a dishonest franchise system, a transnational business scam hiding behind its religious facade.

Scientology operates in what it calls sectors: * Scientology operates as a series of legally separate churches in an “ecclesiastical hierarchy”
* Scientology operates drug treatment centers
* Scientology operates bogus human rights groups, literacy campaigns, and other “social betterment groups.
* Scientology operates a series of franchised business consulting companies
* Scientology can be a (fill in the blank)

The Nine Key Principles of Scientology:

1. Once Scientology policy and operations are learned, any Scientologist can work in any Scientology sector or Scientology corporation anywhere. The Org Board, for example, is used in all Scientology sectors.

2. All Scientology corporations must be legally separate from all other Scientology corporations. This is to minimize legal risk. If one legally separate Scientology corporation is sued and bankrupted, no other Scientology corporation will be affected.

3. All legally separate Scientology corporations use a series of unconscionable and bad faith contracts that strip clients of all of their legal rights in favor of the Scientology corporations.

4. Scientology plays for keeps when it comes to money. Scientology will say, do, or promise virtually anything to separate people from their money. For this reason, refunds are anathema to the Scientology scam.

5. The Sea Org is the invisible hand that manages and operates all Scientology sectors and corporations. The Sea Org provides a unity of command across all sectors and all legally separate Scientology corporations.

6. Scientology must consistently lie about point 5 above by arguing that the Sea Org does not legally exist and has no corporate form, no address, and can have no members.

7. The ever-present threat of Church punishments, sec checks, comm evs, RPF, SP declares, disconnection, and fair game serves to keep all Scientologists — Sea Org or public — in all sectors obedient to the Church. Fear of punishment and loss pervades the minds and hearts of all Scientologists. Scientology plays for keeps and considers anyone who departs and speaks out to be a traitor upon whom severe revenge must be inflicted. The same applies to non-Scientologists who speak out against Scientology.

8. All of Scientology is based upon the writings and policies of L. Ron Hubbard. To use this so-called technology requires that licensing fees be paid weekly to uplines. Thus, all legally separate Scientology corporations must send the bulk of their earnings uplines each week into the corporate account of whatever sector to which they belong. In turn, these sectors must send the bulk of their earnings uplines in the form of licensing fees the Church of Scientology Int’l. CSI In turn sends money to RTC and RTC to CST.

9. All legally separate Scientology corporations in all sectors consistently use deceptive and misleading advertising to lie about the results they promise. The contracts, however, tell the truth: Scientology promises nothing. See: Why no one should ever believe anything said by Scientology Sea Org or staff members: http://tonyortega.org/2015/08/09/why-no-one-should-ever-believe-anything-said-by-scientology-sea-org-or-staff-members/

Leah Remini and the Church of Scientology

The Church of Scientology has gone on another of its rabid mad dog attacks. This time, the Church’s target is Leah Remini and ABC News.

In a series of letters, the Church has bitterly complained to ABC executives about the network’s coverage of actress and former Scientologist Leah Remini and her new book Troublemaker.

On its website, the Church reprinted nine letters it sent to ABC concerning Leah Remini and what it perceives to be ABC’s unfair treatment of Scientology. One problem with the Church of Scientology’s letters is that they are awash in vague generalities and unverifiable claims about the Church’s alleged expansion and its “social betterment” activities. None of its claims are proven by actual data.

Worse, and to the Church’s own damnation, Scientology uses these letters to make extremely vile personal attacks on Leah Remini. This is hardly surprising as the Church of Scientology has a history of making perverted and obscene attacks on women. For example, in the 1970’s Church of Scientology members scrawled Paulette Cooper’s name and private phone number with lurid messages on the walls of men’s public restrooms in New York. This filthy program of revenge against Cooper resulted in strange men calling her at all hours of the night and day seeking sex.

The Church humiliated Debbie Cook when she was still in the Church by making her stand in a trash can for eight hours with a sign around her neck that read “I am a Lesbo.” Water was repeatedly thrown on Cook during this ordeal. She was screamed at to publicly confess that she was a lesbian. Cook is not a lesbian and has been married for decades. Nevertheless, Church leader David Miscavige and his OSA hate machine have always been obsessed with making sleazy sexual slurs and attacks against people within and without the Church. When Cook described her humiliation in a public court hearing, David Miscavige quickly wrote a big check to settle with her in order to escape any further exposure of his depraved behavior.

The Church of Scientology is now viciously attacking Leah Remini in an attempt to demonize her. Leah’s “crime” was the same as that of the heroic Paulette Cooper: Leah dared to write a brave book exposing the Church of Scientology.

What I found to be particularly hypocritical about the Church’s attacks on Leah Remini was its characterization of her as a “no case gain.” This is one of the worst things a Scientologist can be called. This aspersion by the Church begs the question: If Leah spent 30 years in Scientology only to be a “no case gain” then what does this say about Scientology’s oft-repeated claim that “the Tech works.” Apparently, the Tech is not that good if a person can pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for auditing and donate millions to the IAS only to be a no case gain.

Scientology can’t have it both ways: If the Tech works and Flag can crack any case, then Leah should have gotten case gain in thirty years. Otherwise, the Tech does not not work and David Miscavige and the Church of Scientology are lying about the efficacy of the Tech.

Moreover, if Leah Remini is a “no case gain” then the Church of Scientology should give her back every penny she ever donated to the Church just to prove its point that it does not need her or her money. But instead of having integrity and the decency to return her money, the Church has kept Leah’s millions of dollars in IAS donations and is now attacking her on a personal level. This vindictive, greedy, and petty behavior by Church leader David Miscavige is so very typical of Scientology. This behavior also goes to proving the argument that Scientology is a sleazy dirtbag cult that rips people off and gives nothing in return

As L. Ron Hubbard wrote:

“First consider a group which takes in money but does not deliver anything in exchange. This is called rip-off. It is the ‘exchange’ condition of robbers, tax men, governments and other criminal elements.” – L. Ron Hubbard, HCO PL 10 Sep 82 – Exchange, Org Income and Staff Pay.

On a related note, we recently completed an article here at the Scientology Money Project for Scientologists who are seeking repayments of monies on account with the Church.

Despite its letter writing and unwarranted personal attacks on Leah Remini, the Church of Scientology strategically fails to address the actual and glaring reasons for the mounting criticism and odium it incurs daily within Western Culture:

Disconnection
Breaking Up families by Disconnection
Fair game, stalking, and spying on former members and critics
The daily and weekly financial rape of its parishioners by nonstop fundraising
The brutality of the RPF
The lies and brutality of David Miscavige; how was this man allowed to become an unchallenged Dictator in a Church that told the IRS it had a system of internal checks and balances? Did the Church lie to the IRS in its bid for tax exemption? It certainly appears that way.
The Church’s refusal to make public all of the details of its secret agreement with the IRS
The system of vicious contracts it uses to strip its members of their civil and legal rights
The continual lies its spouts in its PR releases; why does the Church lie even when it does not need to lie?

If the Church of Scientology is truly committed to setting the record straight with ABC and Western Culture altogether, it needs address the real issues. The Church further needs to publish real numbers. Specifically, the Church needs to publish these actual numbers:

Current and active IAS membership numbers
Number of current Scientologists active on OT VII
Number of active Scientologists by country
Number of Sea Org members and their average weekly stipend for 2005-2015.
Liquid cash balances in all accounts: CSI, IAS, CSRT, etc.
2014 Balance sheets for CSI, Flag, AOLA, and all other major Orgs.
Actual numbers of new public members who have joined the Church in 2010-2014.
Membership loss and retention numbers since 2005.
Verifiable evidence to support its claims that Scientology has grown more in the past ten years than in the previous 50 years. What does this claim even mean? Is Scientology referring to real estate or members? The meaningful growth would be members and not buildings. I say this because any group with money can buy buildings. Scientology’s growing real estate portfolio does not mean that Scientology is growing; it simply means the Church has assets to purchase financially nonperforming real estate sufficient to satisfy the IRS requirement to spend money in the public benefit, in this case the purchase of buildings to use as Orgs.
Monies spent by the Church and the IAS on lawyers since 2005.
Refunds and repayments given since 2005.
Number of WDAH every year since 2005.
Number of auditors made since 2005.
Number of people declared SP’s since 2005.
Number of Sea Org members blown or routed out since 2005 versus the number of new Sea Org members since 2005.

These numbers need to be audited and validated by an independent third party hired by the Church. Having published Scientology’s 990-T’s, I am interested in the real data. I would like to see and inspect the numbers.

In my view, absent actual evidence the Church of Scientology is essentially publishing meaningless propaganda and self-indicting vitriol that serves to prove the viciousness of the Church of Scientology. The Church is doing this to itself; it sewed the wind and is now reaping the whirlwind.

Until Scientology publishes its real numbers and honestly addresses the intrinsic and systemic problems its own internal polices continually create, the Church will continue on its present trajectory of self-destruction. I have always written that Scientology is inherently self-destructive. From my perspective what is certain is this: The Church of Scientology is being broken upon the wheel of history and is doing everything it can to hasten its own destruction.